Capacity with common sense

This week I was off to Wiesbaden in Germany (outside Frankfurt) presenting the Keynote at the IIR ITIL event. To get there I had to use Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow again. Now this time things are really looking quite good. No queue (or line) for the security checks (I know amazing!!) easy flow to the lounge, although to entice you to spend money, you do have to walk through a row of shops, down one floor, back through another row of shops, and then up one floor! Not what one would call “user friendly”, but I guess its good business to get you to part with your hard earned money. Even the boarding was smooth and on time departure made it a pleasure. However, we have to remember that it is not even at ½ capacity as they delayed moving most of the long haul flights over until they were sure things would run more smoothly.

On my return the only issue (after landing 15mins early) was that one has to walk miles up and down floors, using trains just to get out. The Iris eye recognition device for Passport control fast track was slower than the normal manual line. Why? Well only one Iris device and about 6 desks all open. Now one would think that a brand new $8billion terminal would have more than one Iris device to cater for all UK residents. Then getting to the car, was in issue with only 2 elevators, one flight of stairs and yes only 2 ticket machines, per flow sector. Now I do not have the figures for the capacity of the car park on each floor, but even I could tell that at ½ capacity, at 8pm in the evening, this was insufficient. I spent longer waiting for my turn at this machine, than I did for passport control.

With this I will leave T5 alone for a while! However it all goes to prove that even in a major project and design, capacity planning with “common sense” is required. Continual Service Improvement (CSI) is also needed as the project proceeds, as I’m sure it is very difficult to use the “common sense” approach from cad/cam designs, but as things get built, then Pilots run, the capacity demands needs to be reviewed to ensure the Client (passenger) is served appropriately.

When did you last review your project for an implementation of technology or service from a capacity perspective and a “common sense” perspective? Using the knowledge management method of DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) , where often the “wisdom” element is our own interpretation of the DIK and therefore utilising our “common sense” to make appropriate decisions for the benefit of our customer, whomever that is.